The most obvious of these adventures was the trip Amideast took us on to Biblical sites and the Dead Sea. Jordan's sweet little city of Madaba boasts a church dedicated to St. George. Aside from lovely frescoed walls, the church boasts two artistic wonders. The first of these is a giant mosaic in the floor of the church. I'm not sure of all the details of the mosaic, but I do know that its quite old and- more importantly- that it is a map of the Holy Land at that time. Unfortunately, the labels are done in Greek, so I can't read them, but here are some pictures:
The walled city depicted in this once is most definitely Jerusalem:
This church is also known for a painting of Mary and the baby Jesus, which, according to local accounts, suddenly sprouted a third blue arm in a flash of light. For many years, people brought gold to donate to the church by leaving it by this painting:
I have a tradition of lighting candles in the churches I visit. I lit this one for all the people I love, so if you're reading this, I probably lit it for you:
We also saw an open-air museum of other mosaics (the Middle East LOVES mosaics). I won't bother to upload any pictures because the time it takes for a single picture to upload on the internet out here is not worth it for that particular set of mosaics.
After Madaba, we journeyed out to Mount Nebo. According to the Torah, this is where Moses stood and saw the promised land. Today, the same view looks out at Jericho, which is in the West Bank:
After our stop at Mt Nebo, we pressed onward to the Jordan River. Specifically, we were headed to the baptisms site of Jesus of Nazareth. I didn't find this experience to be particularly enthralling, as the site itself has been reconstructed to the point that it seems to have lost its historic flavor. In any case, here's a photo:
More interesting to me was the Jordan River itself, which is pretty much just a sad little brown ribbon by the time it gets to Jordan:
Directly on the other side of the Jordan is Israel... Seeing the IDF soldiers was more than enough to send me into a small spiral of culture shock:
At the Baptism site, a hoard of loud European tourists stripped down to their scanty underwear and plunged themselves into the Jordan. I found this to be offensive, but the European tourists I encountered in both Jordan and Egypt were wholly disrespectful of modesty standards and local customs in that regard.
Finally, from the Baptism site, we headed to the Dead Sea for an afternoon of floating around and smearing ourselves in mud. It was much-needed relaxation, and the minerals in the mud really do soften the skin. We saw a gorgeous sunset before heading back to Amman for a long night of studying. Here's a quick glance at the beautiful Dead Sea:
